GOP AS GROWTH AND OPPORTUNITY PARTY

The Republican Party is done with business as usual. After facing defeat last November, it’s time to chart a new course – toward victory in future elections, toward a more welcoming party, and toward a brighter future for the country.

In December, I convened the Growth and Opportunity Project, the most public and most comprehensive post-election review in the history of any national party. The project leaders and I crisscrossed the country for three months, listening to voters. From surveys, polls, and listening sessions we received input from over 50,000 people. And last week, they completed their independent report and offered the party 219 recommendations on how to grow and build.

You can read the complete report for yourself online at
GrowthOpportunityProject.com. Over half a million Americans have already read it. We want your input too.

On Monday, I announced what actions the Republican National Committee would take in response to these findings. I focused on five main areas: messaging, demographic inclusion, campaign mechanics, technology, and the primary process.

The report notes the way we communicate our principles isn’t resonating widely enough. In response, we will premiere an aggressive campaign across the country, especially in communities we haven’t been to in a long time, about what it means to be a Republican.

Our principles are not old rusty thoughts in some book. Freedom and opportunity are ever-fresh, revolutionary ideas. They are the road map for American renewal in a new and interconnected world. We want to help every American climb the economic ladder. Knowing parents want the best for their children, we champion school choice and solutions to lowering the cost of health care.

But it all goes back to what our moms used to tell us: It’s not just what we say; it’s how we say it. So the promise of opportunity will be our message, and a spirit of optimism will infuse everything we do.

I didn’t need a report to tell me that we especially have to make up ground with minority groups, with women, and with young voters. So we’re going to stop trying to connect with voters from afar, and move to spend time in their communities – where people live, work, and worship.

Among many other things, we’re establishing swearing-in citizenship teams to introduce new citizens to the GOP after naturalization ceremonies. First impressions count. We will talk regularly and openly with groups with which we’ve had minimal contact in the past: LULAC, the Urban League, the NAACP, NALEO, La Raza. And we will take our message to college campuses, with an especially strong focus on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

But most importantly, we’re revolutionizing the structure of our political field program. For too long, our demographic inclusion efforts have been separate from on-the-ground political activities. No more. We are building a new engagement strategy that will be diverse, year-round, bottom-up, and community-based and integrated within our entire field operation. We’ll have a network of hundreds of paid people across America from the community level up to the national level, with an unprecedented focus on minority, youth and women inclusion.